The financial crisis in higher education hurts all of us, writes Caroline Levine, professor of English, in an Inside Higher Ed op-ed. There’s one clear solution, she says.
"Soaring tuition and crushing student debt have risen faster than inflation for decades," Levine writes in the piece. "Then came coronavirus, which has prompted massive college layoffs. The higher education bubble, we are told, has finally burst. It’s high time for a change, you might say, given preposterously high prices – almost $80,000 a year for some prestigious private colleges."
"Yet as anyone who has worked with a college budget can tell you, the sticker price is a mythical number. At Yale University, for example, students whose families earn under $75,000 are expected to pay zero dollars in tuition and fees. At Ithaca College, now planning to lay off up to a quarter of its faculty, 95 percent of first-year students got scholarships last year. It’s typical at private colleges to pay about half the sticker price.
